„To properly interpret the word of Beethoven in the foreword to the piano score of the 5th Symphony: „The to his disciples“ name Beethoven is holy in art.“ Liszt became acquainted with his first Beethoven compositions in 1822/23 in the course of his piano studies Liszt and Beethoven with Carl Czerny. Beginning in 1828 he heard Beethoven’s symphonic works conducted by Francois Antoine Habeneck An exhibition of the Beethoven-Haus, Bonn, the Stiftung in Paris, performances which set new standards. There, too, he Weimarer Klassik (Weimar Classic Foundation) and the Liszt met Chrétien Urhan, a dedicated interpreter of Beethoven, Ferenc Memorial Museum, Budapest with the support of the with whom he performed the Kreutzer Sonata for the first German-Hungarian Society in the Federal Republic of time in 1834 at festivities honoring St. Cecilia at the Church Germany e.V., the Péter-Horváth Foundation, the Daimler- of St. Vincent de Paul in Paris. Already in 1829 Liszt had Chrysler Corporation, Stuttgart, the Richard and Anneliese been involved in an edition of Beethoven’s piano works Gielen-Leyendecker Foundation and the Ministry for City which was published by Schlesinger in Paris. In 1836 he Planning, Culture and Sport of the State of Northrhein- played the Hammerklavier Sonata at a public concert in a Westphalia performance whose quality was uncontested. Berlioz was so impressed by this interpretation that he compared Liszt to Beethoven-Haus, Bonn, 15 September 2002 to 26 January Oedipus, who had solved the „riddle of the sphinx.“ The 2003 Sonata Op. 106 was considered at that time to be unplayable, and Beethoven himself was convinced that this work would The special exhibition is shown in rooms 7 and 12 Josef give pianists trouble. In a letter to his publisher Artaria, he expressed his expectation that the work might first become performable in 50 years.

The five chamber music soirées which Liszt gave in Paris in 1837 - in which works by Beethoven formed the focal point — continued on the new interpretive path which he had first taken with his performance of the Hammerklavier Sonata. So did his transcriptions (beginning in 1837) of the Symphonies 5, 6 and 7 in a type of piano arrangement which had never been heard before. Liszt’s „Partitions de Piano“ aimed to reproduce the spirit of the work as adequately as possible, without regard to their playability or the general conventions governing arrangements.

Arranging piano scores of Beethoven’s symphonies was for Liszt also a means of assimilating the work. This helps explain how he was able to have immediate success as a conductor of the symphonic works of Beethoven, for instance in his Beethoven performances in 1844 in which he Danhauser: Liszt at the Piano (1840) introduced himself as the Hofkapellmeister in Special Service Heliogravure after the oil painting, 1911 at Weimar, his performance of the 5th Symphony on the Beethoven-Haus, Bonn occasion of the dedication of the Beethoven Monument in Bonn (1845), as well as his conducting of the 9th Symphony at the festivities in honor of the 100th birthday of Goethe in Weimar (1849), or at the popular and popularizing music Beethoven occupied a special place in Liszt’s thinking. As a festivals of the 1850s. pianist, conductor, arranger, composer, teacher and finally as an editor, Liszt’s engagement with Beethoven – not only with During his time in Weimar, Liszt began to study the late individual works, but with almost the whole of his oeuvre – works of Beethoven more intensely, a study which showed its was a lifelong occupation. Reports in the press about first results in Vienna in 1846, where Liszt played three of the performances, notes stemming from Liszt’s students about his five last sonatas. In Weimar, too, Liszt developed his work with them on compositions by Beethoven, Liszt’s philosophy of history, which refers explicitly to Beethoven’s writings, as well as his arrangements, transcriptions and late works, the music to Goethe’s „Egmont“ and to cantatas based on works by Beethoven give us information programatic compositions such as the „Les Adieux“ Sonata. about his understanding of his great predecessor. This understanding changed a number of times in the course of At the end of the 1850s Liszt played a decisive role as editor Liszt’s life. If a general constant can be conjectured behind all in the edition of the collected works of Beethoven which was this, it can best be summed up in the conscious attitude with initiated by the publisher Ludwig Holle in Wolfenbüttel. No which Liszt approached Beethoven. It stemmed from the fewer that 10 volumes of works by Beethoven appeared under conviction which found its verbal formulation already in 1840 his name. His process of coming to terms with Beethoven reached a certain final point with his editions of piano scores of all the symphonies for the publishers Breitkopf & Härtel. With the completion of these arrangements, together with the edition of the Beethoven Collected Works for Holle, Liszt had traversed almost all of Beethoven’s oeuvre.

After this time, the „idea“ Beethoven flared up periodically. Among the most extraordinary concerts, the three-day Beethoven festival in Pest in the year 1870 must be mentioned, where Liszt’s second Beethoven Cantata was performed. Unlike the first one, performed in 1845, the second cantata not only links Beethoven with the sacrosanct, but also styles him a symphonist, hero and titan. Liszt retired finally from public concert life in 1877 with a performance of Beethoven’s 5th Piano Concerto and the Choral Fantasy, Op. 80. In his last years of life, he arranged the Piano Concertos Nos. 3 and 5 for two pianos, and the compositions of Beethoven maintained their central position in his teaching. Frederic Lamond, for example, who later became a legendary interpreter of Beethoven, studied not only the five late piano sonatas with Liszt, but also the Diabelli Variations, Op. 120.

Axel Schröter (translation: Joanna Cobb Biermann)

Themes of the Exhibition

Room 7 (one floor up): Liszt’s early assimilation of Beethoven (1-12) Case 1 Liszt as an interpreter of Beethoven (13-25) Case 2 The Beethoven Monument in Bonn and Liszt’s first Beethoven Cantata (26-38) Case 3 and the cupboard case Songs by Beethoven and Liszt (39-48) Cases 4 and 5 Piano scores of the symphonies of Beethoven (49-58) Cases 6-8 Room 12 (ground floor): Liszt as an interpreter of Beethoven in his Weimar period (59-65) Case 1 The „Ruins of Athens“, the Septet, Op. 20, and the piano concertos (66-74) Case 2 Editions of Beethoven’s works with Liszt’s involvement (75-81) Festivities on the occasion of Beethoven’s 100th birthday and Liszt’s 2nd Beethoven Cantata (82-91) Case 3 The trio Beethoven, Liszt, Wagner (92-99) Case 4 The Beethoven Monument in Vienna (100-104) Case 3

A richly illustrated exhibition catalogue can be bought at the ticket office at the entrance or in the Museum Shop for the price of EUR 15.